Thursday night, five American heroes lost their lives at the hand of hate. Stationed around downtown Dallas to protect the right of the citizenry to peacefully protest, five officers were slaughtered by murderous cowards with the apparent goal of attacking our men and women in blue. These valiant fallen officers courageously ran into the line of fire with little regard for their own well being, and for that, they will always be remembered.
As we look to Dallas, it is important first and foremost to recognize those who have passed and pray for their families, but as we breakdown this horrific event, we must ask how we got here — to a place where our heroes are not acknowledged as such.
According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 58% of Americans believe there is a war on our police. Moreover, a full 60% believe that politicians’ critical comments of police make it more dangerous for them to do their job. This is certainly true.
It is of course also true that, like with any profession, there are bad people in the ranks of the police. Officers who engage in wrongdoing should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. But it is nevertheless important to recognize that these individuals are the minority in a profession where the majority are courageous guardians of society who deserve our respect.
Unfortunately, though, the critical comments and actions of some of our elected officials have created an environment of distrust.
Perhaps Ferguson is an appropriate place to start. On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown charged towards officer Darren Wilson, who fired back in self-defense. The shooting provoked widespread protest and a false narrative of Brown having his hands up pleading not to shoot developed.
Rather than encouraging the country to wait for the facts to emerge and permitting Missouri to handle the matter, President Barack Obama swiftly announced a Department of Justice civil rights investigation just two days later and sent Attorney General Eric Holder to Ferguson to investigate.
Three months later, the Ferguson Grand Jury announced that no charges would be brought against Officer Wilson, and as the city erupted in violent protest and Ferguson burned, Obama reminded us, “The fact is, in too many parts of this country, a deep distrust exists between law enforcement and communities of color.”
Obama’s quick rush to investigate proved fruitless when the Justice Department quietly cleared Wilson four months later in a memo which read, “When the shootings are viewed, as they must be, in light of all the surrounding circumstances… as established by the credible physical evidence and eyewitness testimony, it was not unreasonable for Wilson to fire on Brown….”
This hushed absolution, however, could not compensate for the unjust way in which Obama tacitly tainted the events of Ferguson by declaring a civil rights investigation into a state matter where no violations existed and by using Ferguson, a case of lawful self-defense, as an opportunity to focus on “police brutality.”
But Ferguson did not happen in isolation. It came as a part of a long pattern of the administration meddling in local police-related matters. Former assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy perhaps said it best: ” Here is how the game works. Holder streams in behind a tragedy that [Al] Sharpton and [President] Obama have demagogued. He announces a civil-rights investigation. Eventually, he backs down from the threat of an indictment in the individual case… But, the attorney general is pleased to add, the original civil-rights probe of the non-crime has metastasized into a thoroughgoing civil-rights probe of the state or local police department’s training, practices, and . . . drumroll . . . institutional racism.”
Indeed, Baltimore is beginning to look a lot like Ferguson, where Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby overcharged several cops in the death of Freddie Gray. Obama’s Justice Department, this time under the tutelage of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, promptly opened a civil rights investigation into the police department. Meanwhile, three officers have already been found innocent.
Now, to be sure, allegations of police misconduct must be investigated to the fullest extent of the law. The deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota captured by video were heartbreaking and ought to be intensely scrutinized by local authorities. In the event there is evidence of wrongdoing, the perpetrators should be punished, and in the event of evidence indicating civil rights violations, the DOJ should get involved.
Nonetheless, it is amid hasty condemnation, however subtle it may be, that a culture of law enforcement distrust emerges. Tying a message of police brutality to what was a case of lawful self-defense in Ferguson, for instance, resulted in violent protest. Three weeks after the grand jury decision, protesters took to the streets of New York shouting, “What do we want? Dead cops.” One week later, two NYPD officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, were ambushed and shot point blank by a cowardly man seeking revenge.
Distrust materialized to hate, which turned into senseless violence and loss of life. The cycle will continue until we show America’s law enforcement respect. Our fallen heroes deserve that much.
Kayleigh McEnany is a CNN commentator and conservative writer. She graduated from Harvard Law School with a Juris Doctor. She received her B.S. in International Politics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and studied politics at Oxford University.
